Lost in Surat flood, a 17-yr-old walking home, a school van driver: As water recedes, a terrible tragedy emerges

One of them used to be the driver of a van ferrying schoolchildren; another was the owner of a garage. A third had taken loans to start an embroidery business; the fourth was a teenage powerloom worker.

All of them had been missing for the past few days. As floodwaters in Surat continued to recede, the worst fears of their families and the administration were confirmed on Thursday.

By late evening on Thursday, the Surat police and fire department had recovered another 22 bodies, many of people who had been missing since Tuesday (July 7), when the city saw unprecedented rainfall. The death toll for the week had risen to 34 on Friday.

Darshak Chovatiya watched his 27-year-old brother Sandeep Mansukh Chovatiya, the owner of a garage, being swept away by the water on Tuesday afternoon. The brothers were returning to their home in Swastik Residency in Pasodara in a customer’s car when both the vehicle and Sandeep were lost in a swollen rivulet.

“We were crossing the rivulet in the Amroli area, and Sandeep was driving slowly. Suddenly, there was a gush of water and the car began to be swept away. I managed to open the door on the passenger side and get out. My brother too struggled out, but he lost his balance and fell. I held on to the branch of a tree and shouted for help, and was ultimately rescued by local people,” Darshak told The Indian Express.

Sandeep’s body was found on Thursday on the banks of the Tapi River in the Amroli area, around 35 metres from the spot where he was last seen. “Police informed us after they found some documents in his wallet,” Darshak said.

Surat has received 30% of the average rainfall for the entire southwest monsoon season in just a week. It rained more than 14 inches on Tuesday, leading to the creeks spilling over and flooding the eastern parts of the city, Municipal Commissioner M Nagarajan told this paper.

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Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reviewed the situation on the ground on Thursday and announced a Rs-500-crore creek development project to arrest the flooding.

Forty-year-old Alpeshbhai Desai, a resident of Shagun Residency in Mota Varachha, Surat, was trying to walk home from his embroidery unit in Kamrej on Tuesday. The overflowing Varachha creek had swallowed the road, and Alpesh lost his footing and fell, police said.

Alpesh’s older brother Bhavesh Desai (43), who is a diamond polisher by profession, informed the Sarthana police station after failing to reach Alpesh’s mobile phone.

His body was found on Thursday near Adarsh School in Sarthana after the level of the creek fell. State Health Minister Praful Pansheriya met the family afterward.

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“There was neck-deep water in the entire area,” Sarthana Police Inspector D K Patel said. “Very few people dared to venture out. After getting a tip-off, we reached Adarsh School and discovered the decomposed body. Bhavesh, the elder brother of the deceased, identified the body,” Patel said.

Bhavesh said Alpesh had left his job in a diamond factory to start the textile embroidery business a year ago. “The loan that he took to buy the machines is yet to be repaid. How will his wife repay the amount? Alpesh’s business partner Kishan Patel too is not in a sound position financially,” Bhavesh said.

Shabana Patel informed the Limbayat police station after her 17-year-old son Kamran Sadik Patel did not return home in Khanpura in Limbayat after his day’s work in a powerloom factory. The teen’s body was found near Bethi Colony on the banks of the Mithi Creek in Limbayat on Thursday.

“After my son had left for work on July 7, the overflowing creek entered our home in heavy rain,” Shabana told The Indian Express. “We moved to a relative’s home on an upper floor nearby.”

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Shabana said Kamran had called in the afternoon to say that water had entered the powerloom factory, and employees had been told to go home. “My son left his bike at the factory and was walking home. He was swept away by the Mithi Creek. We got on to boats and searched for him… Police found his body in the evening of July 9.”

“We had only one son. We have lost everything in life,” Shabana said.

Also on Tuesday, school van driver Ajay Gavit (41), parked his vehicle by the side of the road near Ukhadiya Creek in Dharampur taluka of Valsad district. Leaving some children in the van, he waded through knee-deep water to cross the street to pick up a 9-year-old child. He put her on his shoulders and was walking back when the water swept him away.

Local resident Balubhai Chaudhary saw what happened, and managed to rescue the child. But Gavit could not be found. Dharampur police called in divers who searched for him on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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“We finally found Gavit’s body around five kilometres away at Tumbi village on the bank of the creek on Thursday evening,” Inspector N Z Bhoya of Dharampur police station told The Indian Express.

Surat Chief Fire Officer Basant Pareek said, “In two days, our teams have fished out 15 bodies from different parts of Surat city. We found five bodies on July 8, and 10 on Thursday. Some were found on the banks, some were caught in tree branches. Some, which had been in the water for 48 hours, had decomposed.”

Municipal Commissioner Nagarajan said, “Surat witnessed rainfall of more than 14.5 inches on July 7… From Thursday, the water started receding, and by evening there was no water in the city. We will now carry out cleaning activities and remove garbage from the roads. Medical teams are in the field to carry out health check-ups.”